


Opening Up

by skyhillian



Category: JackSepticEye (YouTube RPF), Jacksepticeye RPF, Markiplier (YouTube RPF), Markiplier RPF, Septicplier, Septiplier - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, HOW DID THIS BECOME FIVE PAGES, M/M, POV Third Person, Present Tense, rating is for language and shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-11
Updated: 2015-06-11
Packaged: 2018-04-03 23:44:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4118983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyhillian/pseuds/skyhillian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mark babysits for Jack's shy daughter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Opening Up

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starryeyedboxes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryeyedboxes/gifts).



> Prompt: I asked you to babysit once and now my kid wont stop asking when you're coming back over.
> 
> I diverted from the prompt just a bit but I doubt anyone cares.
> 
> mo mhuirnín = my darling  
> seanmháthair = grandmother  
> seanathair = grandfather

Jack is at work, talking to one of his friends during their lunch break. “I’ve got to go to this stupid parent conference at her school and they have this new stupid rule where they don’t want you to bring your kid so that they can talk about ‘adult things’ or some shite that might upset the kids.” He’s stabbing at his pasta and Mark is watching him with an amused look on his face. “She’s in fuckin’ first grade! What is there that she can’t hear about? It’s not like they’da found her smokin’ on campus or somethin’!” He violently spears a tomato and eats it. “And now I’ve got no one to watch the little pipsqueak while I’ve got to do this bull.”

 

“I could watch her,” Mark offers, and Jack looks at him incredulously.

 

“What?” he says.

 

“I could watch her,” Mark reiterates. “I’ve got a ton of nieces back home. I’m good with kids.”

 

“Are you sure?” Jack asks. Mark has never met Sammy and she’s not too good with strangers. “She can be a little difficult with people she doesn’t know…”

 

“Jack, she’s six. I guarantee that I, a twenty six year old man, can handle a six year old.” Jack snorts.

 

“I’m twenty five and sometimes I can’t even handle her,” Jack points out.

 

“Ah, you see, that’s where the problem lies.” Mark gesticulates with his fork and Jack leans back slightly, worried that he’s going to lose an eye. “You can only handle the emotions of six year olds when you’re twenty six and older.” Jack reaches across the table and whaps his friend on the top of his head.

 

“Shut up and eat your salad,” he tells Mark, who rolls his eyes.

 

“Yes, _mom_.”

 

•••

 

Jack is crouched in front of Sammy, who is pointedly staring at the floor. Jack puts a finger underneath her chin and tilts her head so that she’s looking at him. “I want you to be good for Mark, okay?”

 

“But Dad—” she begins, and he silences her with a stern look.

 

“I know you’re nervous, _mo mhuirnín_ , but I promise it’ll be all right, yeah?” He presses a kiss to her forehead. “He’s a nice man and I shouldn’t be gone too long.” There’s a knock on the door and he hugs Mark when he lets him in. Sammy watches from near the staircase, peering through her long brown hair. She doesn’t see her dad hug people often; he only really hugs her _seanmháthair_ and _seanathair_. It’s weird.

 

“Sammy, why don’t you come say hello?” Jack offers, and she shakes her head ‘no’. He sighs and turns back to Mark. “I told you she’s shy around strangers,” he says quietly and Mark pats his shoulder.

 

“We’ll be fine,” he assures. “Go on. You don’t want to be late.” Jack nods dejectedly and grabs his car keys.

 

“I’ll be back in roughly an hour, okay, Sammy?” The little girl nods and watches as her dad leaves the house, leaving her with a strange man who likes to hug her papa. It’s still weird.

 

•••

 

Jack is late coming home because some over-entitled mom thought that it was important to ramble on and on about her son’s dietary restrictions because _“sugar causes ADHD, you know, and Kaleb just won’t be one of those kids”_. Jack could see that the teacher felt the same way he did about the situation: he wanted to sew the woman’s mouth shut and tell her to read an actual medical journal and not stupid shit on the internet.

 

The conference goes well, just as Jack expects it will. He still doesn’t see why he couldn’t bring Sammy along. All he does was sit there and listen while the teacher talked about how she wishes Sammy would be more outgoing, but overall she is a very good student. She's doing very well at learning to tell time.

 

He needn’t worry though, because when he walks through the door he finds Mark sitting on the living room floor with Sammy playing Mario Kart. Sammy is positively kicking his ass at Rainbow Road and Mark is whining about how she’s cheating.

 

“It’s not my fault you suck,” she fires back.

 

“Samantha!” Jack admonishes, and she jumps up and runs to hug his legs. “Apologize to Mark.”

 

“But Dad, he does suck,” she says, looking up at her father. Jack rubs at the bridge of his nose and sighs. She takes after him a _bit_ too much sometimes. Mark cheers loudly from where it's sitting in front of the TV when he comes in fifth place, leaving Sammy in eighth because dropped her controller. She turns to look at Mark. “Who’s the cheater now?”

 

“You still are,” Mark teases and she sticks her tongue out at him. He picks himself off the floor and leans against the bannister. “How did the conference go?”

 

“Exactly as expected,” Jack tells him as he tries to maneuver around with a six year old stuck to his leg. “She’s a good student and she’s too quiet. Same as always.”

 

“I wouldn’t be so quiet if the people in my class had something interesting to say,” Sammy says, her voice muffled by her father’s leg. “Everyone is so boring.”

 

Mark and Jack exchange a look. “So,” Jack begins, not knowing what to say to his daughter’s comment, “how did everything go here? Did you guys eat?” Sammy finally detaches herself from his leg and she bounces excitedly on her feet.

 

“We had mac and cheese and Mark let me stir in the cheese!” She grins and Jack’s heart warms at her smile. Her two front teeth fell out a few weeks ago, and her dorky grin is beautiful.

 

“Wow,” Jack enthuses while he hangs up his jacket. “You’re gonna be a five star chef before we know it, _mo mhuirnín_.” Jack looks at the clock. “You know what time it is, Sammy-Bear?”

 

Sammy looks up at the clock and frowns for a few moments. “It’s… uh… seven?” Jack nods.

 

“And what does that mean?”

 

“It’s bathtime.” Jack nods. “Can I play with my whale?”

 

“After you’ve got your hair washed,” he says. He has to remind her every night that she has wait until she’s washed her hair to play with her bath toys. She bounds up the stairs. “Don’t run, Sammy!” When he hears the bathtub start running, he sighs. “Thank you for this, Mark. Really.”

 

“It was no problem,” he says, waving his hand in dismissal. “She’s a goddamn riot. She must take after you.” He winks and Jack’s cheeks flush.

 

“A little too much at times, it seems,” he mutters. “How on Earth did you get her to warm up to you?”

 

“I told her about you missing your chair and busting your ass at work last week and she wanted to hear more stories of, and I quote, “Dad being a big donkus-dingus”.” Mark grins at Jack’s loud groan of exasperation.

 

“Great. You bonded with my kid over my inability to do menial tasks without injuring myself.” Jack heads for the kitchen to get a bag of chips.

 

“Oh, she had some great ones, too,” Mark continues, following Jack into the kitchen. If he hears Jack’s murmured “Oh, God”, he ignores it. Mark ogles Jack’s butt and when Jack catches him and shoots him a saucy look, he just grins. “I didn’t know you had a scar there. Better be more careful when you’re on ladders, eh?” Jack blushes bright red.

 

“Oh, that child is in so much shite now,” Jack grumbles. He hops up onto the counter and pops a chip into his mouth. Mark leans next to him.

 

“If it makes you feel any better, I bet the scar on your ass is cute.” Jack whaps the back of his head.

 

“Why don’t you kiss my arse and find out?”

 

“Is that an offer?” Mark teases.

 

“Do you want it to be?”

 

“Sure sounds like _you_ want it to be,” he fires back. Jack shoves some more chips into his mouth to avoid taking the bait.

 

This is a very common thing between him and Mark. Their banter often trails off into flirting and sexual tension. People at work are absolutely positive that they’re sleeping together, but it was only one time and they were drunk. It wasn’t even proper sex; it began with a blowjob and ended with frenzied grinding against the wall in Jack’s office during a Christmas party. They had acknowledged it happened, but they hadn’t made anything out of it.

 

Yet.

 

There’s a shout from upstairs. “I dropped my fucking whale!” Mark splutters and Jack drops his chips.

 

“SAMANTHA JUNE!” Jack shouts. “YOU WATCH YOUR MOUTH!”

 

“Sorry, Dad!” she shouts back.

 

“Jesus fuckin’ hell,” Jack mumbles and Mark raises both eyebrows in an  _“I wonder where she gets it from”_ look and Jack flips him the bird. “Like you’re any better, you shithead.”

 

“Not really, no, but I also don’t have a six year old who repeats what I say,” he points out and Jack sighs. He lets his head hit the cupboard above himself.

 

“I know, I know,” he said. “I’m Irish. We like to swear.”

 

The conversation is interrupted by Sammy padding into the kitchen holding her stuffed cat close to her chest. She has the hood of her cat kigurumi pulled up over her head and it is blocking most of her eyes. Instead of doing the logical thing and pulling the hood back, she's walking around with her head tilted back so she could see. She's an absolute twit and Jack loves her all the more for it.

 

“Daddy, I’m ready for bed,” she says proudly. “I even brushed my teeth! See?” She bares her teeth like an absolute goon.

 

“Sheathe those puppies, _mo mhuirnín_ , you’re gonna blind me!” Jack cries, covering his eyes. Mark squints and holds his hands out as if to block light. Sammy rolls her eyes.

 

“You two are dumb,” she tells them. Jack doesn’t argue with her because he knows she’s one hundred percent correct. Jack hops down off the counter and throws his chip bag away.

 

“Let’s get you to bed,” he says. Sammy heads up the stairs and Jack and Mark watch her go. “I’ll be up in a minute, okay? Make sure you’ve got Harry Potter open to the last spot we were at!”

 

“Got it!” she cries as she enters her room.

 

Mark slips on his shoes and grabs his keys from the bowl on the table next to the door. Jack surprises him with a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for watching her tonight, Mark. It really means a lot.” Mark shrugs, but on the inside his stomach is doing the cha-cha.

 

“It was no problem.”

 

“I’ll see you at work tomorrow, yeah?” Mark nods in agreement and they stare at each other for a beat too long before Mark says goodnight. Once Jack has closed the door behind him, Sammy leans out of her bedroom.

 

“Come on! I wanna hear about Hermione setting Snape on fire!” she whines and Jack heads up the stairs.

 

•••

 

“Are you serious?” Mark asks whilst popping his lunch in the microwave.

 

“She seriously will not stop asking when you’ll be back. It’s more along the lines of, “When is Mark coming over again? I want to see if I can make him cry during Mario Kart” though. She’s a sadistic little fucker.” Jack stirs his soup and Mark’s eyes widen a little.

 

“She’s got a little mean streak in her, doesn’t she?”

 

“Just a wee bit,” Jack agrees. “No idea where she got it from.”

 

“Mhm,” Mark says sarcastically as the microwave beeps.

 

“So… _Can_ she make you cry during Mario Kart?” Jack asks and he has to duck when Mark chucks the coffee filters at him.

 

“I guess you’ll just have to see tonight, then,” Mark says, puffing out his chest.

 

“Better bring your tissues, Fischbach, cause the McLoughlins are gonna kick your arse.” Mark smacks his arm lightly and tells him to fuck off.

  
Jack couldn’t be happier.


End file.
